Rickey Smiley wants to be a present and male figure in the lives of Brian McKnight’s estranged biological children.
For the past year, the “Back at One” singer has faced relentless backlash for openly speaking about cutting off communication with his sons, Brian Jr. and Niko, as well as his daughter, Briana.
Brian Sr. shares his sons with ex-wife Julie McKnight, who have been vocal on social media in the past about their father abandoning them. He also has a daughter from a separate relationship and another son, Clyde, with another woman.
Most recently, the once-celebrated crooner said that his offspring were not of God. While responding to criticism for using biblical passages as his defense, McKnight said, “God wasn’t talking about children that are the product of sin, which these are,” and that “I didn’t raise them; their mothers did.”
McKnight remarried in 2017 to his current wife, Leilani Mendoza. She has two adult children, Julia and Jack McPhee, from a prior relationship. In 2022, the couple welcomed their first child, a son named Brian Kainoa Makoa Jr. The “Love of My Life” vocalist legally changed his name to match his youngest son’s in 2023.
In a May 6 video, Smiley extended an invitation to the recording artist’s children. He said that he was “absolutely stunned and horrified” to hear the singer’s justifications for disowning his own flesh and blood while warmly embracing his stepchildren as his only kids.
“I just wanna say to Brian McKnight kids — to all of his kids — the ones that he said that’s born in evil, born out of evil … whatever he claims or whatever — that you have a lot of support out here,” said the radio host.
I want the adult children of #BrianMcKnight who've been #disowned to know they have a lot of support out here. You are not thrown away.#RickeySmiley pic.twitter.com/rAtO1IH7aL
— Rickey Smiley (@RickeySmiley) May 6, 2024
Smiley would go on to tell the three young adults that they are always welcome in his home state of Alabama, “Where you have men and you have uncles, and you have a lot of people in Birmingham that take on kids that have been abandoned by fathers. I’ve seen a lot of it.”
Furthermore, the veteran comic said, “If y’all ever feel any kind of way or you feel unloved and need male figures, father figures, there’s people out here like myself. … You are not thrown away, you are not garbage, you are loved, you are to be respected.”
He continued, “We are not here to try to replace your father, which that can’t be done, but we can be something to you. Just make sure you go on into adulthood and live your life, and get you the help and therapy that you need so that you can move on, ‘cause words hurt. And stuff like this hurt a lot. You know, when things like this are said, it’s a bell that cannot be unrung.”
Brian McKnight exposed by his oldest son for calling them ‘products of sin.”
— Yetunde Folarin (@xxyettymamaxx) April 24, 2024
Everything that you are doing, your kids and taking notes and can be used against you in the future. Now I see why his ex wife left him. Children shouldn’t be cleaning up condoms at any age. 🤦♀️ pic.twitter.com/HEaiENpIvJ
Speaking more directly to the songwriter, he noted that “you might be fine with your new wife and all that kind of stuff or whatever, but she won’t be able to give you a kidney. She probably won’t be able to give you a piece of liver or organ, or blood.”
Smiley told McKnight to come down off his “high horse … thinking you doing something. It might have to be one of your kids that might have to step up to the plate to save your life.”
Fans applauded his kind words, which come a year after his eldest child, Brandon Smiley, died of an accidental overdose at the age of 32. But singer Tyrese said it was “unfair in my opinion as a grown-ass man” for Smiley to speak about another man’s family dynamics.
“I’m not addressing Brian or his wife that’s not my business. I’m just responding to a comment that Ricky Smiley made,” said the “Baby Boy” actor. He then defended Brian Sr. by saying that your kids will cross you, making the relationship “toxic” and “volatile.”
“There’s a bunch of things that have been said and done over the years that is nobody’s business that has contributed to where they are,” Tyrese continued.
Though he admitted to personally knowing his musical contemporary, he said they have never spoken about the disowned children or his exes.
Tyrese doubled down on his support when he said that mothers can taint a child’s perspective of their father by “brainwashing” and alienating the co-parent. He also disclosed that his logic was influenced by his own struggles with the mothers of his two daughters. Like Brian Sr., he was met with backlash.
“Rickey Smiley recently lost his oldest son. The way life is set up, you can’t afford to disown your own children! Rickey Smiley is supporting them from a different place/perspective in his heart. @tyrese just learn to SHUT UP sometimes,” read one comment. Someone else declared, “Defending Brian McKnight’s behavior is insane.”
A third individual wrote, “Narcissistic people love including themselves in situations where they get to play victim.”
Tyrese has since deleted his videos that appear to show him defending Brian Sr.’s actions and words.
Amid the movement to “cancel” him, he escaped to Europe for a romantic getaway with his wife. While traveling, Brian Sr.’s Detroit concert, originally scheduled for June 9, was scrapped as fans railed against him and his approach to parenting.
After seeing all of the discourse, Brian’s son, Niko chimed in weeks after his father claimed that his mother blocked him for offering support during his battle with cancer.
“Tyrese used to sleep under our pool table when I was a kid. I know the 90s RnB brotherhood blood is thicker than anything but you should sit this one out champ,” he wrote in his IG story, captured by The Shade Room. “You have relationships to fix your own children and your own past decisions you’ve made on behalf of p—sy and power. The allegiance to those two things is what keeps you guys from seeing that the only thing that matters in the end is family. Real men can’t see past the bulls—t.”
He concluded, “Let me stop though. This 46-hr chemo infusion has me ready to fade jody. That’s not right.”
